Sonos One seamlessly syncs voice, app, and touch commands, enabling you to manage music with a single word, tap of the app, or swipe of the speaker. Combine voice with the Sonos app to manage all your music in one place. Sonos, in short, has fully abandoned its original, walled garden approach so its largely excellent speakers can act as the output for all the key music services. Sonos wants to be the default musical part of your smart home, and the output for whatever content streaming services you happen to favour. The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) also sounds great when playing music. Listening to Little Simz' Woman, the bass sounds deep and well-controlled, while synth strings are warm and rich. Simz's rap vocal comes through with clarity, while Cleo Soul's avant-soul melodies float sumptuously above the mix. Given that this is a Sonos speaker, you won’t be surprised to hear that the Sonos One sounds pretty fantastic.

Prices valid in stores (all including VAT) until close of business on 25th November 2023. (Some of these web prices are cheaper than in-store, so please mention that you've seen these offers online.) We’d suggest the One is particularly good as a kitchen speaker. We have loud music playing from the One in the kitchen and can still get Alexa’s attention from the adjoining room with only a slightly raised voice. It’s a shame there’s no HDMI 2.1 support, which would allow for 4K at 120Hz and even 8K at 60Hz pass through—which, in turn, would make the Beam ideal for 8K-supporting consoles like the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. The quality of the microphones makes the One less likely to mishear your requests and instructions – we find it makes fewer mistakes than our third-generation Echo Dot. Correctly hearing the request is only half the battle, though, and Alexa is still capable of misunderstanding. Enjoy clear, richly-detailed sound that fills the room at all volumes, with the superb audio quality that Sonos are renowned for.

The more components you add, the stronger the dedicated wireless mesh becomes. Best of all, because it runs independently from your Wi-Fi, the reliability and strength of the signal is unaffected by Wi-Fi dropouts. The Sonos One also features revolutionary TRUEPLAY technology. TRUEPLAY scans your room, analyses the results and then fine-tunes the speaker for the ideal listening experience. Whether your room is large or small and the unit is placed close to a wall or in the centre, the One adapts to give the most natural and realistic sound possible. With AirPlay, stream directly from your Apple devices or ask Siri to play your favourites from Apple Music throughout your home. The Sonos One was first released in 2018. However, it's worth pointing out that since then Sonos speakers have had several updates. If your TV doesn’t have an HDMI port, you can connect the Beam via the optical port; Sonos provides all the cables you need in the box.

The Gen Two Sonos speaker will fit into any Sonos system you might already own and would be a nice add-on to Sonos speakers in your current set up. The original Sonos One speaker has dropped slightly in price since the release of the Gen Two model and is a fine option for anyone who doesn't need the possibility of adding Google Assist at a later date. The most common issue is when you say, for example, “play Ladytron”, and she instead starts playing a song with those words in the title. That can be annoying at first, but you can avoid that by saying “play some music by Ladytron” instead. Of course, you can also manually adjust the treble and bass levels of your speaker if you have more specific preferences, although we were content to leave them at their default levels.

Sonos One (Gen 2)

But for compact convenience and quality on a budget, the clever little One still comes highly recommended as an ideal, great-value entrance into the Sonos ecosystem. You’ll also be encouraged to go through a ‘Trueplay Tuning’ process, which requires you to walk around your room with your phone as your speaker plays a number of test sounds. Your phone listens to how the speaker sounds in its environment, and tunes its sound accordingly.

You’ll also find a small LED light strip on the top of the soundbar, which lights up as you interact with it, and another LED beneath the microphone icon to let you know when the soundbar’s mic is enabled. We prefer the sound with the Loudness setting left on, but experiment to discover which combination works best for you and your room. We set it up the way we like, and get a delivery that’s weighty, full-bodied and loud – not traits you’d generally expect from a wireless speaker of this size. The soundstage is spacious and impressively organised, with vocals given plenty of breathing room, making them instantly more engaging.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is the perfect soundbar for smaller spaces

There isn't a huge amount of bass, but it's no worse in this regard than other speakers of its size – you have to step up a bit to something like the Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Gen (which is three times the price and notably larger) for a real improvement in this area. As you might expect, the Sonos One SL can fit straight into an existing Sonos configuration, adding even more sound to your mix of PLAYBARS and smart speakers. It's worth remembering that, while voice control is obviously the big headline for the One, you can of course still use it as you would any other Sonos speaker. Sonos's own app remains the best in the business for its usability and for bringing practically every streaming service (and your own stored tunes) together under one roof, and the addition of AirPlay 2 means Apple device users can send audio from almost any app they use. Spotify Connect is onboard, too, though Bluetooth connectivity and physical connections (USB-C) are the reserves of the new Era 100.